Music Phones on the Bus
Mobile phones started off as "mobile" phones which you can carry around and make calls. The technological advancements in the 90's enhanced the mobile phones, and they started to include mobile games, camera and music players which have nothing to do with the primary purpose of phones.
People started to get infected with the "plug-in" syndromes with the advent of portable mp3 players and the problem became worse when the mobile phones started to be capable of playing mp3 music. Laws have been passed in some cities prohibiting people from crossing the roads with their ears plugged in since this poses a serious danger to the safety of pedestrians.
Now, the mp3-capable mobiles phones have learned to scream with the built-in speakers. While the plug-in syndrome can be considered to be individual problem, the screaming mobile phones are no longer a problem of an individual alone. I first encountered this problem on a bus when a group of secondary school students got on the bus with the mobile phone screaming a Techno song. The built-in speaker of a mobile phone are better suited for mid-range frequencies since they can't produce the low frequencies, and the high frequencies output are not optimal. You could imagine a Techno song coming from a mid-range speaker--what a sound pollution it is causing as though the engine noise of the bus was not enough to make my headache worse. In fact, the mid-range frequency is the frequency range of human voice and I think the Techno noises coming from that speaker created a virtual noise of human voices.
I'm a music fan, and I like Techno. But, not on the bus where I would be concentrating on other stuffs and not from that built-in speaker. The situation got worse when I encountered another time the screaming mobile phone on the bus again. This time, it was not from a group of youngsters; instead it was from (what I think to be) a 50-year-old man. "Man". Yes, "man". With the word "man", I stress that a human being when promoted to manhood, must be responsible for what's around him. But sadly, he was worse than those school boys. He wanted to entertain the whole bus with his sing-along voice over the Chinese opera music coming from his mobile phone. I admire his talents but that was not the right time and the right place to show off his vocal talents.
I am not critical about the advancements of technologies. They are great and I like them. But, I just feel that we as humans need to utilize the technologies in proper ways and in doing so, need to take care that we are not harming the people and the environment around us. In the built-in speakers and mp3 players of mobile phones, I welcome it with wide arms; I don't have to carry two gadgets to make phone calls and to enjoy music (in an ear phone) occasionally when I'm idle, not to mention the camera of the phone. And I like the built-in speakers too; we could enjoy some music at a party when a full stereo system is not available. But, I strongly feel that when it comes to using the built-in speakers of mobile phones to play music, we should practice some care not to harm those around us.
Do you have a similar personal story where the use of latest technologies annoy or harm those around us?
1 comment(s):
First things first, what "other stuffs" are you concentrating when you are on a bus? :P hehe
Anyway, I agree that while everyone has the right to enjoy entertainment, care must be taken not to do so at the expense of other people.
The key is to be considerate.
Of course, I do have such a story which is happening right now. My roommate like to play movies, music and games at a very loud volume. It started like two weeks ago. He does that as soon as he gets home until he goes to bed. Even when I request, he only lowers the volume a little bit. I don't say he can't enjoy his music/movies/games. I don't say he can't use speakers, I even don't say volume must be always low. But, if you want to enjoy loud music with speakers, amount of time should be limited. If you want to enjoy it for very long periods, use headphone. That's reasonable enough, I think.
Yes, this kind of people is everywhere. The world will be a better place without them....
Leave your comment